by Uttley - Jason A.

Like Israel, U.S. Should Ban Fluoride Amid Health Concerns

Nearly half a century after Minnesota passed legislation requiring the addition
of fluoride to
municipal water supplies, fluoride is under fire due to health concerns. 1)
Evidence that the
additive is not only a contributor to the epidemic of thyroid dysfunction, but
also a likely
neurotoxin linked to a range of conditions associated with cognitive impairment,
has come as a shock, even to members of the scientific community who have reviewed
the growing research. 2) On Aug. 26, 2014, faced with such disturbing evidence,
Israel’s Health Minister Yael German ordered an end to the practice of
water fluoridation. 3) While German has been criticized for her decisive action,
the move comes as little surprise to the handful of experts in the U.S. who
have been aware of the dangers associated with fluoride for years.

Reversing course on water fluoridation

Despite safety assurances from the American Dental Association (ADA) and Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who have long advocated dumping fluoride
into the water supply in the interest of dental health, new studies have made
it hard to deny the evidence of long-term damage from fluoride ingestion.

Studies that showed lower IQ levels in children exposed to too much fluoride
received little
attention initially, even as additional research demonstrated a gradual build-up
of fluoride in
specific areas of the brain. 4) 5) 6) That changed when the Head of Neurotoxicology
at the one of America’s most prestigious dental research facilities, the
Harvard-affiliated Forsyth Institute, confirmed that cognitive impairment from
fluoride appears very real indeed. 7)

By the time investigative journalist Christopher Bryson brought the story of
neurotoxicologist
Dr. Phyllis Mullenix into the public eye, with his 2004 book The Fluoride Deception,
U.S.
scientists had already uncovered similar studies that pointed to the same disturbing
conclusion. 8) 9) The EPA confirmed that even at the so-called “optimal”
level of 1 part per million — a concentration widely accepted for water
fluoridation programs in most states — the cumulative effect of fluoride
on humans is deleterious, at times resulting in brain and kidney damage. 10)

As with the majority of Americans, most officials failed to take the issue
seriously at first due to decades of promotion that had convinced nearly everyone
that fluoride had been proven safe to swallow. Massive marketing campaigns by
the ADA, CDC and others equated fluoride opposition to quackery and conspiracy
theories, which in-turn were messages reinforced by a media whose health stories
have long been generated by a handful of journalists overly reliant on talking
points provided by public health officials.

Those charged with reviewing the emerging evidence were among the first to
realize that both
the scientific community and general public had been profoundly misled regarding
the safety of fluoride. As health officials slowly began to accept the evidence
presented by their own
scientists, they faced the daunting task of overcoming public perception, which
their
predecessors and colleagues had helped shape.

Ending fluoridation with no reason would inevitably trigger an avalanche of
criticism not only
from the dental community with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo,
but from the
media and public as well. On the other hand, completely revealing the full extent
of scientific
concerns might not only trigger widespread outrage, but a profound loss of trust
in the
institutions responsible. Health officials on opposite sides of the Atlantic
decided to address this catch-22 scenario in very different ways.

Israel’s Health Minister German decided, in the fall of 2014, to be relatively
forthcoming about some of the growing concerns when she implemented the recommendation
of scientists by fully halting fluoridation. By contrast, U.S. Secretary of
the Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius decided, in the
winter of 2011, on a much less transparent approach.

What the U.S. announcement failed to mention

In January of 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made national headlines by
issuing a joint
recommendation to significantly lower the concentration of fluoride in water.
11)
For Minnesota and some cold weather states, which maintain even higher levels
in water, that proposal would cut the fluoride concentration by more than 40
percent, from 1.2 to 0.7 parts per million.

News of the Jan. 7, 2011, public announcement to draw down fluoride levels
in the U.S. water supply was delivered to many by way of journalist, Mike Stobbe,
whose articles on the subject appeared in newspapers across the United States,
including both major newspapers in Minnesota. 12) 13) 14) Reports made it clear
the ADA supported the decision to reduce fluoride levels. However, just four
days later, the ADA informed HHS Secretary Sebelius that they were “very
disturbed” to find out that the Dept of Health and Human Services was also
quietly proposing to eliminate the CDC’s Division of Oral Health. 15)

This was disturbing to them because the ADA has a long history of promoting
water fluoridation alongside the CDC by using the Division of Oral Health as
a mouthpiece to deride critics and echo the virtues of fluoride. In fact, it
is the Division of Oral Health that is responsible for the CDC having gone so
far as to extol water fluoridation as, “One of the 10 great public health
achievements of the 20th century.” 16)

In one motion, with nearly surgical precision, the Department of Health and
Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency had quietly proposed
a move that would cut the cord linking fluoride promoters at the very moment
they had launched their campaign to wind down water fluoridation. Surreptitiously
they had convinced the ADA to publicly endorse their proposal to reduce fluoride
levels, while simultaneously working to dismantle the part of the CDC that the
ADA had used to convince the scientific community that fluoride was entirely
safe.

Given that journalist Mike Stobbe is based in Atlanta and covers the CDC on
behalf of the
Associated Press, withholding news of the proposed elimination of the Division
of Oral Health from one the few reporters charged with covering the very public
announcement recommending the dramatic change to the water fluoridation program
suggests a conscious effort by Secretary Sebelius and other officials to reduce
Americans exposure to the proven neurotoxin while not casting a shadow over
those responsible.

The decision to ax the CDC’s Division of Oral Health was not the only
fluoride related news to surface following the Jan. 7 announcement. EPA officials
also revealed around the same time that — after nine years of debate —
they had suddenly been authorized to grant a petition to phase out sulfuryl
fluoride insecticides. 17)

That piece of fluoride news also wasn’t disclosed to journalists covering
the proposed change to the water fluoridation program. Revealing the fact that
concerns over the pesticide also related to fluoride would likely have triggered
a barrage of questions and forced U.S. officials into a position to have to
explain the full extent of scientific concerns.

Nevertheless, it’s important to understand that the decision to phase
out that fluoride-based
pesticide validated the concern of scientists who had for years stated that
the dangers of fluoride exposure extend well beyond water.

The cumulative effect

Although best known for its topical application to teeth through toothpaste,
most of the fluoride that’s ingested actually comes from other sources.
Based on sheer volume, the leading source of fluoride in the diet stems from
fluoridated tap water and the vast array of beverages (and to a lesser degree
food) made with tap water. Based on relative toxicity, however, the leading
sources of fluoride and related organofluorine compounds are pesticides and
prescription drugs.

The concentration of fluoride in tap water has remained unchanged in most communities
in the U.S. since water fluoridation programs first began (originating in the
mid-1940’s and becoming widely popular due to propaganda campaigns in the
1950’s and 1960’s). But fluoride, like lead, has long been known to
accumulate in the human body. Thus, fluoride levels not only rise over the course
of one’s life, but also from generation to generation, as women unknowingly
pass along higher and higher levels to their children. To make matters worse,
new sources contribute to the total volume of fluoride consumed, which in turn
makes the leading source of exposure — tap water — increasingly important.

Despite the fact that the alarm raised by scientists actually has little to
do with the issue of dental fluorosis — the pitting and staining of teeth
from excess fluoride exposure — the rapid growth of such a noticeable and
widely acknowledged adverse health effect clearly illustrates the growing problem
of overexposure to fluoride and organofluorine compounds. A report released
by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics on the prevalence of
dental fluorosis showed that during a period when water fluoridation levels
remained constant for much of the U.S., including all of Minnesota, the total
number of cases of dental fluorosis doubled in children (age 12-15), to more
than 40 percent, while moderate to severe case
s tripled. 18)

The growth of such a noticeable and widely accepted adverse effect has profound
implications. Prolonged fluoride ingestion is now linked to neurotoxicity. There’s
also growing evidence linking it to thyroid dysfunction. 19) Tens of millions
of Americans suffer from thyroid related conditions. Underactive thyroid disorders,
which are associated with a slowdown in the body’s metabolism and loss
of cellular energy, are at epidemic proportions, particularly among women.

The fact that Israel’s Health Minister acknowledged the risk fluoride
poses to those with thyroid disease speaks volumes about just how seriously
scientists now take this connection.

U.S. Officials didn’t touch on scientific concerns over thyroid disease
or neurotoxicity in their 2011 public announcement. Instead Secretary Sebelius
chose to cite a 2006 National Research Council report on fluoride toxicity as
the primary motivation to dramatically cut fluoride levels in the water. That
report was significant because, as experts have pointed out, the National Research
Council had been specifically directed by U.S. health officials to base their
conclusions only on widely accepted adverse effects, like dental fluorosis and
bone fractures, and not on all the other, far more insidious effects that scientists
can now reasonably conclude are also occurring. 20)

Dr. Hardy Limeback, the former President of the Canadian Association of Dental
Research and one of the key authors of the National Research Council’s
2006 report on fluoride, has since said that “Fluoridation could turn out
to be one of the top 10 mistakes of the 21st
century.” That statement, from a man who was once considered one of the
top fluoride advocates and educators in Canada, isn’t based simply on fluoride’s
known association to dental fluorosis and bone fractures.

Fibromyalgia: A theory of relativity

The issue of relative toxicity looms in the background of recent moves to stop
water fluoridation. Fluoride and organofluorine based pesticides and prescription
drugs may not contribute nearly the same volume of fluoride to the diet as tap
water. However, such sources may be playing an even larger role in the development
of certain rapidly emerging conditions.

Advocacy groups, such as Parents of Fluoride Poisoned Children, have long warned
that some fluoride-based prescription drugs expose people to same level of toxicity
as they would get from years of consuming fluoridated water. 22) 23) This toxicity
often goes unchecked as it comes in the form of “side effects” that
mirror the symptoms of
chronic fluoride poisoning.

The popular fluoroquinolone antibiotics, which include Cipro and Levaquin,
are among drugs
linked by such groups to an extreme form of fluoride toxicity, known as organofluorine
poisoning. A significant lag in the typical onset of symptoms makes organofluorines
appear
much less toxic than they really are. Only over the course of many months is
the severe
poisoning revealed, as comparatively mild symptoms slowly progress to become
highly
debilitating.

The small group of rheumatologists who defined “fibromyalgia” for
the medical community in
the mid-1980’s, based on the symptom of greatest interest to their branch
of medicine, had no idea what they were observing was a serious form of fluoride
poisoning. Even as millions of women began to develop the vast array of symptoms
following repeated exposure to such drugs, physicians were at a loss to explain
the sudden emergence of the condition. Both the medical community and the pharmaceutical
industry had been so badly deceived to think fluoride was safe that they have
never been on the lookout for symptoms of chronic fluoride poisoning, much less
to a form associated with a significant delayed reaction in the onset of symptoms.

In September of 2012, the New York Times revealed that the fluoroquinolone
drug class was linked to the delayed onset of fibromyalgia-like symptoms. 24)
For a drug overwhelmingly prescribed to women, the link of any drug class to
such a debilitating condition should’ve garnered far more attention following
this revelation. But to fluoride researchers, the news of a fluorinated drug
linked to such symptoms should’ve come as no surprise.

Dr. George Waldbott, who was one of the first physicians to warn of the dangers
of consuming fluoride, back when fluoridation first began, observed the very
same symptoms in his patients. Of course, at that time, chronic fluoride poisoning
was comparatively rare. Nevertheless, Waldbott tried unsuccessfully to bring
attention to the fact that long-term fluoride poisoning was associated with
a vast array of symptoms, including not only crippling musculoskeletal pain
& stiffness, but also a debilitating form of cognitive impairment he described
as, the “loss of mental acuity and ability to concentrate.” 25)

Neurotoxicologist Phyllis Mullenix — whose work on the damage fluoride
does to the brain triggered alarm among U.S. Scientists— is among the researchers
who have noticed the glaring similarities between advanced forms of chronic
fluoride poisoning and what has come to be termed “fibromyalgia.”
Despite public perception, many fibromyalgia groups report that the condition’s
most paralyzing symptom isn’t the excruciating musculoskeletal pain &
stiffness, but rather the severe cognitive impairment. Memory and concentration
problems can even progress to an extreme form of brain fog, known as “fibro
fog”— a dementia-like condition.

More brain effects: Disrupting the thyroid and adrenals

As troubling as the connection to cognitive impairment is, what’s garnered
even more interest by some scientists is the degree to which fluoride’s
effect on the brain plays a major role in so many of its other devastating adverse
effects.

Fluoride has long been suspected of interfering with thyroid function by replacing
iodine, an
essential component of the thyroid hormones. That said, new evidence suggests
that fluoride’s primary mode of interference — not only with the thyroid,
but also the adrenals — relates to the damage fluoride does to the parts
of the brain that regulate the body’s neuroendocrine system.

The thyroid and adrenal glands produce hormones that control an astonishing
array of bodily
functions, including cellular energy production and inflammatory response. Signals
sent and
received by the brain regulate how much of these critical hormones to produce.
Even relatively small disruptions in this cyclical pathway, known as the hypothalamus-pituitary
axis, can have devastating consequences.

Too much or too little of the powerful hormones, or how the body uses the hormones,
can trigger an onslaught of symptoms. While this breakdown may involve the thyroid,
the adrenals are now thought to be more universally affected. As a result, clinical
tests only reveal measurable thyroid impairment in some patients.

Well-known fibromyalgia researchers, including Dr. John Lowe and Dr. Jacob
Teitelbaum, have concluded that the tests for thyroid dysfunction are simply
inaccurate. To them, the empirical evidence points to the conclusion that fibromyalgia
is essentially an extreme form of thyroid dysfunction.

Those with the distinct advantage of understanding how fluoride poisoning affects
the brain,
however, see things a bit differently. From their point of view, all conditions
related to long-
term fluoride poisoning, including thyroid dysfunction and fibromyalgia, are
associated with a
common breakdown in the brain’s ability to properly regulate hormones.

The fact that fibromyalgia research has recently shifted its attention to this
area is of no surprise to fluoride experts, like Phyllis Mullenix.

The stages of long-term fluoride poisoning

The fibromyalgia connection is particularly important because from the vantage
of severe long-term fluoride poisoning it becomes easier to understand why it’s
linked to many other conditions.

Take for instance one of the most misunderstood conditions in all of modern
medicine —
chronic fatigue syndrome — a condition now referred to by many as myalgic
encephalomyelitis, or ME, which means “muscle pain with inflammation of
the central nervous system.” Since fibromyalgia also means “muscle
pain” and is also known to involve central nervous system inflammation,
the connection to ME might seem obvious, even to those who may not be aware
of the astonishing degree of overlap across the entire array of symptoms, including
cognitive impairment.

Naturally, without knowing that both conditions represent widely varying stages
of
organofluorine poisoning likely caused by highly to toxic fluorinated prescription
drugs, it’s been difficult to understand the connection between the two
conditions. So dramatically do the symptoms ramp up in the most advanced forms
of poisoning that in many ways the vast differences in the quantity and severity
of symptoms make ME/CFS & fibromyalgia almost
appear unrelated.

Nevertheless, in Minnesota, one of the nation’s first patient advocacy
organizations for ME/CFS joined forces with a fibromyalgia support group in
2003 to form the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Fibromyalgia Association of Minnesota.
Unfortunately, this short-lived partnership ultimately destroyed both organizations,
as member support began to erode following this alliance.

While some clearly understood that there was an important connection between
the conditions, with no knowledge of the common cause, mismanagement of the
nonprofit proved fatal in the face of dwindling support. ME/CFS patients had
difficulty identifying with the more excruciating symptoms, while fibromyalgia
sufferers wanted to distance themselves from ME not only because the symptoms
tend to be far less crippling, but also because of the stigma associated with
its original, seemingly harmless sounding name.

Ironically, while few took the illness seriously because of its label, perhaps
the most stunning
aspect of the CFS connection is that “chronic fatigue” is far and
away the best known of all the early symptoms of fluoride poisoning.

Even in the early days of the fluoridation debate, fluoride was suspected of
dramatically slowing cellular energy production. This is why the critics of
fluoridation, like Dr. Waldbott, listed “chronic fatigue not relieved by
sleep or rest” as one of the first symptoms of chronic fluoride poisoning.
26) It is no coincidence that when Stanley Kubrick made a mockery of the issue
in 1964, with Dr. Strangelove, the movie’s lead character pointed to “a
profound
sense of fatigue” as the reason for sparking his concerns about fluoridation.

But as experts know only too well, chronic fatigue really only scratches the
surface in terms of fluoride’s adverse effects. Disrupting cellular energy
production by impairing the area of the brain that controls the thyroid and
adrenal glands causes a cascade of ensuing symptoms. The more severe the poisoning,
the more advanced the symptoms become.

For physicians, the label “stress and anxiety disorder” is often
used for a myriad of early
symptoms (i.e. cold hands & feet, headaches, dry mouth, weight gain, etc.),
unless clinical tests reveal thyroid impairment. As the quantity and severity
of symptoms progress most of those affected tend to be treated like hypochondriacs.
With each new symptom comes a new diagnosis. Urinary frequency is commonly labeled
“incontinence” or “polyuria”; gastrointestinal disturbances,
“irritable bowel syndrome”; numbness, “peripheral neuropathy”;
joint pain, “osteoarthritis”; and so on.

Noticeable memory and concentration problems, as well as isolated muscle pain
are also familiar initial symptoms. However, because muscle and brain cells
are among the most densely packed cells in the body with energy producing mitochondria,
such cells tend to be most profoundly affected when the fluoride poisoning becomes
relatively severe. Debilitating cognitive impairment often precedes the excruciating
widespread muscle pain that is a hallmark of the more advanced stages of long-term
fluoride poisoning

By the time patients advance to the “fibromyalgia” diagnosis, where
a breakdown in energy
production approaches its punishing zenith, the complete list of symptoms is
often brutally long, incredibly agonizing and extremely difficult to cope with.

The gender factor

Although fluoride is an equal opportunity toxin, which can affect both men
and women, most
related conditions disproportionately affect women. Despite claims that there
are many factors for this, it is very possible that the simplest explanation
is correct: the most toxic fluorinated prescription drugs, which have primarily
been directed at women, are largely responsible.

If the New York Times is right and the widely popular fluoroquinolone antibiotics
are linked to fibromyalgia, and fluoride experts are right and fibromyalgia
represents an extreme form of
fluoride poisoning, then the drug class is likely linked to all fluoride related
conditions.

Thyroid dysfunction, ME/CFS, fibromyalgia and every one of the conditions that
now appear to correspond to the various symptoms or stages of fluoride poisoning,
are all disorders that predominantly affect women. Statistics vary, but in general
roughly four out of five of those battling such conditions are women.

While the fluoroquinolones are not the only type of fluorinated drug linked
to fibromyalgia, they appear to deserve special attention for several reasons:
(1) they gained widespread use in the early 1980’s, just as ME/CFS and
fibromyalgia emerged out of nowhere (2) they’re
overwhelmingly prescribed to women for common ailments, like urinary tract infections,
(3)
fluoride and organofluorines are cumulative in nature, so repeated exposure
to highly toxic drugs matter greatly, (4) the medical community has an exceedingly
poor track record when it comes to issues of women’s health.

Due to the delayed onset of symptoms associated with organofluorine poisoning,
those who are diagnosed with related conditions often report that doctors treat
them as hypochondriacs, as they slowly develop one symptom after the next. This
slow progression of symptoms has also undoubtedly played a major role in how
the medical community defined the conditions in the mid-to-late 1980’s.

In 1988, the CDC made a mockery of the women who had developed the early, and
yet serious form of fluoride poisoning, when it endorsed the “chronic fatigue
syndrome” label. So poorly was the condition defined — in spite of
a name that corresponds to the most well-known symptom of early fluoride poisoning
— that not even the CDC itself took the condition seriously at first.

In fact, so little did the CDC think of the condition that, in the late 1990’s,
they were caught
diverting millions of dollars in research funds intended to get to the bottom
of the rapidly
emerging condition to other programs and then, ultimately, lying to Congress
about it. 27)
28) The CDC then led the medical community on a long and futile effort to find
a virus responsible for the condition. Time and again announcements of breakthroughs
in identifying the virus turned out to be misguided, wrong, or even manufactured.
29) 30) 31)

The fact that the CDC did all of this while their Division of Oral Health was
aggressively
promoting the actual cause – fluoride – on behalf of the ADA represents
a degree of incompetence that is almost unfathomable, even for a federal agency.

Not to be outdone, the leading rheumatologists who defined “fibromyalgia”
in the mid-1980’s decided to not only ignore the early symptoms of the
condition, and therefore treat the ME/CFS connection as if it were unrelated,
but the connection to the vast array of other symptoms — including the
devastating cognitive impairment — by labeling the emerging condition based
solely on one symptom of interest to their particular branch of medicine.

In 1990, they compounded this astonishing oversimplification by recommending
that the criteria to be used by the medical community to diagnose the illness
would also center on that same, lone symptom. To make matters worse, Dr. Fredrick
Wolfe, one of the nation’s preeminent rheumatologists who played a major
role defining the new condition, later suggested (under tremendous pressure
to explain where it came from) that its rapid growth could only be explained
if it were entirely psychosomatic.

Although Wolfe’s explanation was largely dismissed by other prominent
fibromyalgia
researchers, it is a notion that many physicians actually still believe, in
part because of how
poorly the condition was defined. Despite the label, the diagnostic criteria
and even the
corresponding marketing of pharmaceuticals that, not coincidentally, all center
around that same symptom, those who develop “fibromyalgia” don’t
strictly complain of severe widespread muscle pain as one would expect if the
condition were some sort of social or marketing generated phenomenon. For the
vast majority of sufferers who are properly diagnosed, the list of common symptoms
is not only long and harsh, but also unrelenting and highly progressive.

Incredibly, the controversial end point of fibromyalgia —the conspicuous
symptom of spinal and cranial calcification, which affects those with the very
worst conditions — is also an end point of chronic fluoride poisoning.
32) 33) In fact, if there is one symptom of long-term fluoride poisoning that
is the most well-known beyond the very early symptom of chronic fatigue, it
is almost certainly spinal stenosis. That particular symptom was highlighted
as far back as 1937, in one of the most comprehensive fluoride toxicity books
ever written, Fluorine Intoxication. And yet, by the time the deluge of cases
of chronic fluoride poisoning surfaced in the early-to-mid 1980’s, that
connection had long since been forgotten by all but a handful of experts.

The gender bias that has contributed to women being treated like hypochondriacs
by physicians has been compounded by a lack of understanding of the relative
toxicity of certain fluoride based pharmaceuticals as well as a complete disregard
for the symptoms and stages of chronic fluoride & organofluorine poisoning.
For an illness whose sudden rise predated the (mid-1990’s) popularization
of the internet and affects women at a rate approaching 9-to-1, the notion that
millions of members of “the weaker sex” are still being accused of
concocting the debilitating symptoms of fibromyalgia speaks volumes for just
how much issues of women’s health have been misguided and marginalized.

Turn of the tide

With one of America’s closest allies recently ending water fluoridation
due to health concerns, the time has come for federal officials in the U.S.
to immediately halt the practice of adding the fluoride to the American diet.
Unlike Health Minster German who courageously acted to protect the citizens
of Israel, Secretary Sebelius and her successor, Secretary Sylvia Burwell, have
moved far too slow responding to concerns raised by the scientific community.

For a proven neurotoxin linked to thyroid and other endocrine maladies, the
implications of such significant excess fluoride exposure among younger and
younger age groups are staggering. Tens of millions of Americans suffer from
thyroid dysfunction. 34) Millions more suffer from fibromyalgia, a condition
whose symptoms are identical to an extreme form of chronic fluoride poisoning.
To deny those patients and their doctors the knowledge that fluoride not only
causes such conditions, but almost universally worsens symptoms regardless of
how the condition originated is of profound importance.

When Minster Yael German announced the end to the practice of water fluoridation
in Israel, she specifically cited the health implications for those suffering
from thyroid dysfunction, pregnant women and the elderly. 35) Scientists in
the United States who have been working to bring the adverse effects of fluoride
to light admit that those are only a few of the most obvious at-risk groups.
Those who have been working to uncover the full measure of fluoride’s harmful
effects now understand that the link to thyroid dysfunction and cognitive impairment
is only the beginning.

America has a long road ahead. As it stands, consuming fluoride from fluoridated
water is
largely unavoidable, especially since most water filters don’t remove it.
For those with related conditions who will see a vast improvement in their symptoms
when daily dietary fluoride consumption begins to fall, the end to water fluoridation
cannot come soon enough. But while ending water fluoridation is an important
step, stopping drug fluorination and revealing all of the damage that fluoride
has done to human health is even more important. Thanks to the bravery of scientists
and others who are sharing the evidence of harm, that day is slowly approaching.

20) Carton, R. “Review of the 2006 United States National Research Council
Report: Fluoride in Drinking Water.” Fluoride Journal July-Sept, 2006.
pp. 163-172. Retrieved from fluorideresearch.org: http://www.fluorideresearch.org/393/files/FJ2006_v39_n3_p163-172.pdf

32) See National Fibromyalgia Research Association website for links to studies
on spinal stenosis and chiari 1 malformations. Retrieved from nfra.net: http://nfra.net/SpinSten.htm,
and
http://nfra.net/ChiarMal.htm

35) Press report in Hebrew. 30, April. 2013. Retrieved from ynet.co.il: http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4374000,00.html
Translation of what the Health Minister said about her decision:
“My decision to stop fluoridation was because Israel fluoridated all the
water for residential use. In fact, less than 2% of the water is used for drinking.
Fluoridating the washing-machine water, dish-washer water, baths, toilets and
gardening are actions without logic. Physicians told me that fluoridation can
harm pregnant women, people who suffer from thyroid problems and the elderly.
I was exposed to studies from the world that raise the suspicion that too much
fluoride can harm teeth and bones. In the current state we receive fluoride
from several sources: drinking water, toothpaste, cooking water, vegetables,
and it is impossible to know what’s the dose we absorb. The WHO published
a study, which shows that there is no difference between cavity levels in countries
that fluoridate and do not fluoridate. Because of this, with all considerations
and interests combined, I think that continuing massive fluoridation of 100%
of the water was not right and many
also think that it harms the basic rights and the freedom of choice.":